The marketing concept commonly known as "impulse buying" has been used effectively in a variety of retail establishments including supermarkets, convenience food stores, and pharmacies. The idea behind impulse buying is that customers must see certain products before they are motivated to buy. In order to promote impulse buying, such products should be displayed attractively and placed in a location in a store having high customer traffic.
Various types of display techniques have been employed to promote impulse buying. Supermarkets, pharmacies and other retail establishments display articles on hooks, shelves or in bins at the checkout counters where payment is made for one's purchases. Racks or other multiple shelf displays are often found at the ends of aisles, and a variety of smaller, portable displays are placed in the aisles of supermarkets or pharmacies.
Efforts have also been made to generate impulse buying of food products requiring refrigeration. Article displays of this type have generally included transparent doors or walls with shelves which are angled upwardly from front to back so that all articles on the shelves may be seen by customers. Usually these displays are wall-mounted units having large clear glass doors which provide access to the interior. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,489,985, 4,458,501, 3,751,653, 2,863,302, 2,669,851, 1,462,285 and 0,986,875.
Wall-mounted, refrigerated article displays of the type described above present several disadvantages from the standpoint of promoting effective impulse buying. Only the front panel or door of such display devices is clear and thus the product it contains can only be viewed from one direction. In addition, wall-mounted units typically are very large and/or permanently mounted in a particular aisle and thus not portable to various locations around the store. Items such as soft drinks, fruit juices, wine, prepared sandwiches and the like might sell much more quickly if the display apparatus could be moved to a location near the checkout counter of the store or other areas of high customer traffic. Marketing with impulse buying is effective only when the product is located within the customer's view, and very large or permanently mounted wall units often are located in areas of low customer traffic.
Portable, refrigerated display devices have been proposed to improve the effectiveness of impulse marketing of refrigerated items compared to wall-mounted displays. Refrigerated displays of this type generally include a clear housing mounted atop a base having rollers for movement of the display to the desired location. A plurality of spaced shelves are mounted within the interior of the housing which are accessible by opening a single door to the housing. Refrigerated air is introduced into the interior of the housing and directly contacts food items placed on the shelves, either by flowing around and/or through the shelves. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,840,439, 4,744,611, 4,668,028, 4,660,903, 4,523,439, 3,850,486, and 3,797,903.
One problem with portable, refrigerated display devices of the type described above is the formation of condensation on the walls of the clear housing. Because the refrigerated air is introduced throughout the interior of the housing, condensation forms on the housing wall when the door is opened frequently to remove food items or beverages. This condensation prevents visual inspection of the contents of the display unit, unless the door is opened, which significantly reduces the effectiveness of the display unit in promoting impulse buying. Additionally, refrigeration of the entire interior of such display units results in relatively high operating costs because the condenser, blower motor and other elements of the refrigeration system thereof must cycle frequently, if not continuously, in order to maintain the desired temperature within the housing.
Consequently, there is a real need in the industry to alleviate the condensation problem and high operating costs associated with the portable, refrigerated display units presently available to display refrigerated food items and promote impulse buying thereof.